The new things that matter

1. Flexibility

Tom Peters said it so well in his confessions [Referring to his earlier book - "In search of excellence"]:
"'Search' was about people, customers, and action. Twenty years later, it's about ideas, liberation, and speed."

The world has changed - is changing. Can we keep up?

When I left school and started studies about 10 or so years ago, the business landscape was markedly different. Changes did not occur at light speed and information moved about as fast as a Fiat Uno in third gear on the highway.

In school and in university, we were taught how things were and how to deal with that. In fact, flexibility and adaptabliity were not the main focus of any formal education that I recall. And now, its a necessity. For big businesses, small businesses and everyone in between. Now, owning more, being bound by contracts/overheads/etc, carrying loads of baggage = less flexibility


Now, you can't assume that change means that slow is bad and fast is good - remember the old "Tortoise and the hare" story. Sometimes [often?] fast is good but slow is better, because if you're not correctly positioned, you may think you need to react fast but in fact rushing causes mistakes and ends up less effective.

Regardless, the rules have changed. How does your business ensure it is flexible? Is it flexible at all? I sure hope so. We'll find out soon enough.